Dealing With the Heat

I ran an easy 5 uneventful miles on Friday evening keeping things slow and relaxed. I felt decent, not great, not horrible, neutral.

Saturday was another long run with Deirdre and Seebo. We followed a route from a few weeks back that enabled us to hit a few water fountains along the way and also a couple good hills, both up and down. I felt great in the first 3/4 of the run, pace was right around 8:00, sun was beaming down, and the sweat was dripping.

We eventually made our way back onto Kelly Drive and the pace picked up into the low 7:00's. This pace really shouldn't be a problem, even at the end of a long run, but I was definitely struggling to keep it up. There were only a few miles left, I figured I could just hang on until the Art Museum. We made a quick stop at the water fountain and suddenly the heat hit me like a ton of bricks. After we started off again I began to fall behind, I just couldn't keep it up. I dropped about 100 yards back, felt a little better and decided to push to catch them.

I got within 10 feet and thought "No way am I keeping this up". I felt kind of like I was redlining, pushing myself to the limit, I felt exhausted suddenly. I pulled off the path onto the grass and actually sat down for a for a few seconds, dumping what remained of my water over my head. After a breather, I started running again but now very slow and relaxed. I had planned to run to the Art Museum giving me a little over 16 miles but stopped short at Lloyd Hall, filled up my water, and relaxed in the shade. 15.2 miles in 2:02.

Obviously not a great way to end a run. I felt crappy for at least another 5 hours after the run. Drained, like I had run 23 miles not 15. I am blaming it on the heat and possibly the fact that I donated blood on Wednesday afternoon. I don't really think this should have much of an effect 3 days later but possibly.

Time for some good news. Heather gave a me new mountain bike for my birthday and we picked it up Saturday afternoon. A Cannondale Caffeine, a hardtail bike that is a big step up from my current 8 year old bike. 29" tires, disc brakes, and 27 speeds. I took it out for a spin this morning and was planning on riding for an hour. I ended spending over 2 hours out there and loved every minute of it. I could feel the fatigue in my legs on the uphills but just dropped the gear and went slowly.

The new bike kills my old one in just about every way. I did however take a spill in the last 20 minutes which bent my large sprocket but luckily didn't bend or break anything on me. I'll have to get that fixed. I am definitely looking forward to many miles on this bike but maybe only once a week or so in marathon training.

The week

Mon - 10 miles with 10 striders,
Tues - 4.2 miles
Wed - 8.5 miles w/ 4x800 in ~2:53
Thurs - 11 miles
Fri - 5 miles
Sat - 15 miles
Sun - 2+ hours on the bike. I am guessing 22 miles.

54 miles for the week with a long bike ride.